How BIM is redefining best practice

Whether we realise it or not, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is redefining industry best practice. Decades of entrenched process are being streamlined to create a more collaborative and efficient way of working, though the transition itself has been anything but easy.

In a UK Construction Excellence exclusive, Mark Bew, MBE – Chairman of the BIM Task Group – offers a retrospective look at the Government’s BIM Level 2 mandate, his thoughts on Level 3 and beyond, and an appraisal of the industry’s current progression towards digitalisation.

How do you feel the industry is progressing in terms of its BIM adoption? Has the BIM Level 2 mandate helped to kick-start the process?

It’s very easy for those in the UK to look at what we’ve achieved, forgetting where we started from four years ago. I’ve spent a fair amount of time out of the country looking at other nations – in Europe and Australia, for example – and it’s only when you go elsewhere that you realise just how far we’ve come.

Bill Gates once said: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten”. That very much applies to BIM, I think. We’ve made a staggering improvement – a step change – but the more you look around, the more you realise that BIM and the digital transformation is happening and that we’re taking it for granted.

The Government’s intervention, the technology becoming ubiquitous, the younger generations coming out of universities with an iPad underneath each arm – each of these factors have come together to form a perfect moment.

If you look at our BIM journey and the mandate intervention, most surveys reckon that we’re 40% to 60% through the process. If those surveys are to be believed, we’ve moved across all of the public sector plus a lot of the private sector market.

We know that there’s a massive tail in construction, from Tier 1 contractors to smaller companies, but the reality is that it’s unlikely that jobbing builders are going join into BIM in our career lifetime because there are no barriers to entry. If, in the future, we start to see planning regulations change as they have done in Singapore – where you now have to submit a model to receive planning permission – things will move even further.

Where we are right now is pretty much where I’d like to be however; probably better than I had hoped in many ways.

With the mandate now behind us, what’s next for the industry in terms of BIM implementation? Do you think Level 3 will be mandated as Level 2 was, for instance?

We’re committed to setting a date at some point in the future, though we can’t mandate something without knowing what it is. Once I have that clarity in my own mind, along with the support of the public sector, we can make another intervention.

Right now, our focus is on driving benefit from Level 2, increasing market capacity and growing exports, while also ramping up the Level 3 Digital Built Britain team. We’ve started to put that team into place and I’m hopeful that the contract for the first piece of feasibility design will be out fairly soon.

Level 3 is a quantum of scale larger than Level 2. It’s going to be a lot more complex but we’ll also have five times more budget per year to ensure that it’s done professionally, as Level 2 was.

Contractors often risk falling into the trap of thinking “I’m here to build this” rather than “I’m building an environment for people to thrive in”. It’s an idea that the industry has yet to get its head around. It’s not good enough to just throw buildings up. You need to build something that adds lasting value to businesses and lives. The social impact is much more critical than the cost of the building itself.

I think the construction industry will have a Volkswagen moment in the next decade. The public will suddenly realise that the things we’re building don’t work very well, and there will be enough data available publically for someone to create an app and hold the industry accountable. That data will drive out bad practice.

Broadly speaking, are the ‘BIM4’ organisations – BIM4SMEs for instance – succeeding in engaging their respective sectors?

The supply chain coming together to create the BIM4s is, in my view, essential – though it’s a shame that the big Tier 1 contractors haven’t been able to find a bit of money to engage the public and the supply chain in the process. A little investment would drive massive amounts of goodwill, I think. The BIM Task Group has spent a lot of time kick-starting and supporting the BIM4s, but it would be wrong for a public client or government to actually fund them.

I’m currently working with two or three groups including the UK BIM Alliance to find out what things might look like post-September, when the market takes ownership of Level 2. At that point, there needs to be some sort of coalition inside the supply chain that can help bring together responses and messaging. Using what we’ve learnt over the last four years, this should be possible.

Are SMEs in danger of being left behind? What has the BIM Task Group done to bolster their uptake?

We’ve spoken to people in businesses with 1 to 100 employees and their feedback is that the Government doesn’t listen, provide access or pay on time. In truth, the same is true of most clients or organisations, whether you’re a Tier 1 or a one-man band. The problem we’ve got is the impact of those behaviours on smaller businesses.

Ultimately, BIM isn’t going to help with that but if we can use BIM as a Trojan Horse to articulate the problem further up the tree, we may start to see some traction. Project bank accounts have made sure that SMEs are paid on time, for example, while free access to the BIM4s has improved SME inclusion and diversity. It’s never perfect for everyone but we’ve tried to break down any barriers where possible.

How important is education in making BIM standard practice?

There are two parts to this, the first being ‘is Level 2 possible?’ In 2011, we set the standard and established our perspective on how the industry might get there. The challenge is now ‘how can we get everyone doing it?’ The major role of education is to grow capacity so that we can follow through with what we’ve set out and consistently deliver on those 15% to 20% savings. The fact that we have a clear methodology around strategy, process, training, delivery and support has given us an edge over other nations.

There is another role around education, which is research. Universities are already investigating Level 3 which is absolutely crucial. We need those brains because they will be the ones improving capacity at the bottom of the pile.

We’re also on what is now our third iteration of the Learning Outcomes Framework. We’ve given complete clarity to the market as to what our expectations are for learning, and we have engaged the education sector to chair and run that piece of work with our help and support.

Finally, we are looking at an accreditation programme for all training and delivery services to maintain quality and consistency.

To date, BIM uptake has been driven by the Government. Engaging Private Sector clients is crucial however. Is the Private Sector amenable to change? Are Private Sector client beginning to specify BIM Level 2 in their projects?

For sure. We’ve worked with a lot of developers – in London especially – and, as we all know, they’re a hardnosed and financially focused bunch. They wouldn’t specify BIM without reason. According to Great Portland Estates, for every pound spent they have received two in return. That kind of commitment to BIM shows what’s possible.

It’s the same with the Tier 1’s – some of them are doing spectacular things with BIM. I was with a Tier 1 the other day and over half of their projects are now Level 2 compliant from a portfolio some three or four hundred strong.

No-one – including the Government or client – is perfect at this at the moment, but we’re much better than we were four years ago and we’re going to be even better in four years’ time. That is the nature of the journey we’re on.

I recently chaired a session at an ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) event. The room was full of government clients, designers, consultants and contractors. It was amazing. That cohort of individuals would never have entertained a conversation about data two or three years ago and yet, all of a sudden, it’s at the top of their agenda. That shift has come about so quickly. It’s hugely exciting, and the fact that the UK is leading the way is a really exciting opportunity for us all.

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